Victim of Misfortune
by HTM
Summary: Jan only spoke in one tone, and that was one of monotone. He believed in humanity. He believed that humanity was perfect. He didn't believe the many stories of murder and slaughter. Too bad he was shot by one of these "murderers". He felt a pull on his being, though. The groceries he had been sent to buy were still on the ground...


The sixteen year old boy stared at the tombstone with very little emotion.

He was standing in front of a grave. His mother's grave.

He was in a peculiar situation, a deeply depressing one, to anyone but himself. His father had abandoned him and his mother when he was born, and he had never met him.

Add to that the fact that his mother had been struggling financially, and it was hell.

Not only that, but also that he was '_special_'. Or in his mother's words, he had a '_gift that came with consequences_'.

He felt guilty for being born. He felt guilty for being a burden on his mother, financially, mentally, and physically. Every time he saw his mother's grave, he felt guilty. He knew it was survivor's guilt. He knew it wasn't his fault in any way possible.

His mother had been killed. She'd been a victim of a maniacal serial killer.

Thankfully, he had seen the serial killer's face, and had immediately reported to the authorities, just as his mother had told him to do if something like that would happen.

The psychologist that the authorities had given him time with was very concerned, as far as he could tell. The kind psychologist kept glancing at the clock, doubtlessly trying to squeeze as much time in for him as possible. The kind psychologist always asked how he felt. It made him feel good that someone was so concerned about his mental well being. The kind psychologist always was available for him to talk to, but only during the bi-monthly sessions.

The children in the school were also very concerned, hence why they pushed him so much, it was merely friendly shoves. They were truly concerned for him, they weren't bullying him at all. They were his friends. They weren't shoving him around because he was 'the quiet nerd', the 'teachers' pet'. No, they were far from that petty.

The problems he had were nothing compared to the problems of others. Sure, having no family whatsoever, a father that had abandoned his mother and said mother being killed right in front of you while you were powerless to do anything about it was nothing compared to the suffering of others. The other people complained a lot and about many things. They had to have reasons to do so, right? Their lives must be so miserable that they could only focus on the negative aspects of their lives.

Compared to them, he had a much better life.

After all, he could keep quiet about his sorrows. The other children in school couldn't, so their 'bottle' might have been so filled that they couldn't keep the cap on, and it burst.

He always thought of emotions as a gas, and control being a bottle. If there was too much of it inside the bottle, it would burst.

His bottle was always nearly empty, so it wouldn't ever burst.

The foster parents that he lived with were also very nice, as were their three children, all of which were older than him. Sure, they ordered him to take out the trash, to wash their clothes, to prepare their food, to make their beds, to wash the dishes, to pull out the weed in their large garden, to feed their four dogs, to water the plants, but that was alright.

He had to earn his right to stay, after all. He couldn't slouch off and leech them of whatever it was they had generously given him. They gave him three meals a day, a roof over his head and a bed to sleep on. That was all he required.

His mother had problems with money. Why wouldn't his foster parents have problems, too?

Their children were also incredibly kind and gentle. They always played with him, showing him how to play video games, showing him anime and manga, and allowing him to 'surf' the internet.

That was one thing he didn't quite understand. He had asked them why it was called 'surfing' the internet. The internet wasn't something physical. It was something intangible, something that couldn't be felt, much less _surfed_ on.

They had laughed when he had asked, and simply said that just how it was, and called him stupid. They didn't mean it, though. It was meant in humour.

He had read manga and watched anime, and for some reason, he felt as if he _belonged_ whenever he read manga, whenever he watched anime. The people there were very expressive, their eyes always told many stories.

Their mouths might have said one thing, but they were never bad people.

Take Orochimaru from Naruto, for example. Orochimaru wasn't a bad person. He was just very afraid. He was afraid of death, he wanted to escape death, no matter the cost. While his methods were without a doubt questionable, to Orochimaru, they were justified in the pursuit for immortality.

Just because other people's morals conflicted with his didn't mean Orochimaru was in the wrong. He was scared of death. Why wouldn't he pursue immortality?

And Pain, or rather, Nagato. He wasn't a bad person, never was. Kishimoto had also seen that. Nagato had always been a good person. He was merely concerned for the future of the shinobi world, the future of humanity.

And Madara Uchiha. He was just as concerned for the future. He planned for humanity to live in an illusion, forever being the 'winners', with no 'losers' existing at all. It was a beautiful thought. One that the sixteen year old would be able to get behind. If everyone was in an illusion, they wouldn't know they were in one, and therefore would think that the illusion was reality.

Illusions were just as good as reality, if the one under the illusion thought it was such.

He had tried to defend 'genjutsu' against his foster siblings, but they had laughed at him, and told him that genjutsu 'was for pussies who couldn't fight'.

He thought it was alright that they thought that way. They preferred the direct approach, the physical way of fighting.

He could get behind that. He understood their want to fight using their hands, fighting while their opponents could see them.

But he wasn't one of them. He preferred fighting without looking his opponents in the eye.

He didn't like looking in the eye of _anyone_. Looking someone in the eye was a sign of trust and friendship.

He didn't trust anyone except his mother.

He wasn't friends with anyone except his mother.

And his mother was dead.

So his life was lonely.

Jan's life was lonely.

* * *

"Give me some fucking money now, asshole!"

What was Jan doing? Why was he standing stock still, staring at the man who was pointing a pistol at him? He had to get back home to his foster parents with the groceries he had been asked to buy. They were already tight on the budget, so bringing the groceries back was very important.

"I'm afraid I don't have any money, sir. My foster parents don't see it fit to give me any, except for buying groceries."

The thug twitched in anger. Why did he do so? Why was his finger squeezing-

A loud bang rang through the alley. Blood stained Jan's clothes, dripping onto the dirty concrete ground.

Pain was shooting through his body. His hands tried to vainly cover his gunshot wound, to stop the blood flow. Jan's eyes were wide, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Jan could understand why the man shot him. The man wanted money. The man needed money. He probably had a starving family, or was already starving.

He didn't want the money to get drugs. The white powder around the thug's nose was only flour, or some kind of disease. Not actually because he was selfish.

The thug was far above that. Right?

No matter what Jan tried to do, the pain was intense, absurdly so. His body was cramping, his entire body was twitching, seemingly having a seizure. His very being contracted, convulsed, and not only did his own body spasm, it seemed as if the _very air_ did much the same thing, pulling on itself fiercely, as if there was some otherworldly being pulling the fabric of space and time from another dimension.

The thug flinched away from the show of abstract power, his hands shaking. He dropped his gun, and it clanked against the concrete.

The aura coming off the space-time anomaly was threatening, malevolent, and a reddish orange.

In truth, Jan didn't know what was worse.

The pain from the gunshot, or the fact that he was being pulled away from the groceries that he had been asked to buy for his foster family.

They were already in a dire situation, just like his mother. Why wouldn't they-

A snap resounded across the entire world, leaving it in a stupor, and the man with the gun losing consciousness _permanently _from the sheer magnitude of fear coursing through him.

It was the last any human on Earth saw of Jan.

* * *

He felt pain.

That was all he felt.

And for some reason, he couldn't faint. He couldn't lose consciousness. He had always been very sensitive to physical pain, and this was the worst he had ever felt. He didn't know a gunshot wound could make his entire body hurt as if it was on fire and being pricked by needles from both inside and out. It felt as if he was growing in some areas and shrinking in others with speeds he thought would be impossible by standard human anatomy. Nothing he had ever felt before had come close to this.

A horrible part of it was that he couldn't see anything. His eyes felt as if they had been completely removed and replaced by something else, something foreign, something not his own.

He relied on his eyes more than he thought he did. He couldn't see anything.

It felt as if knowledge was forced into his brain, brute strength forcing itself into his mind. What this knowledge actually was surprised him. Something about a language...

All of a sudden, there was another snap of a displacing of space-time, and there was _noise. A lot of noise_. _So much noise_.

It was the sounds of trees cracking and wind was rushing past his ears.

And yet, past all this noise, one sound came through the clouds of noise.

The sound of a mother talking to her child.

"And remember, be wary... be wary of Jiraiya-sama. He's a pervert. Don't go to him for advice about girls. You hear me, Naruto? Don't..."

A sob.

"Don't do anything your dad or I wouldn't do, okay? I love you, your daddy loves you too."

Another choked sob.

"I'm sorry, Minato. I took all our time."

A pained chuckle.

"No, it's all right. Naruto, listen to your motor mouth mother, okay? We both love you very much."

And the sound of a pair of bodies colliding with the ground.

Jan had no clue what had just happened, but he knew that whoever was talking was a bit of distance away. He groaned, but it came out as a bit too high pitched. His throat seized up from the phantom pains.

He couldn't see anything. He opened his eyes, and he couldn't see anything. It was dark. It was blacker than black. It was _nothing_. He couldn't see_ anything_.

His ears seemed to work perfectly fine as he heard a baby's cry.

"A baby..." Jan whispered. "It... needs..."

He tried to crawl towards the source of the crying baby.

"It needs... someone's shoulder..."

He felt his hands move, his entire body move with the wish to comfort the baby. His arms pushed him up, his legs shakily holding him up. But he was standing. Standing on his own two legs.

With a shaky breath and a bit of luck, Jan stumbled across small rocks and splinters that dug into the soles of his feet.

But he ignored the pain. There was a baby, and it was crying. It was more important than splinters or rocks, more important than his pain.

He was almost there. He was almost there. Almost there to cheer the baby up. He didn't want it to cry-

He fell when his feet hit something soft. His knees scraped across the harsh ground, cutting into his knees.

His desire to hold the baby in his arms won over the pain shooting through his legs, although he did groan quite harshly.

He felt around a bit, and his hands collided with something metal. It clinked onto the ground, knocking something else that was also metal to the ground. Jan crawled forward, unaware of the suddenly arrived observers.

He carefully scooped the child up, and began to hum a song that would at least comfort himself. He gently pressed the child to his chest, and met resistance earlier than he expected. But he mentally shrugged, because it was unimportant compared to the child.

The combination of the warmth of being enveloped in a hug, as well as the humming, the pleasant swaying and the comforting thrumming of a heartbeat, made the child fall asleep faster than Jan could count to ten.

But Jan didn't stop humming. He didn't stop humming even when someone yelled commands for someone to come and see what was going on.

He was entirely focused on making sure the kid was safe and healthy.

Three pairs of footsteps alerted Jan about someone that was close by. He stopped humming, but didn't stop rocking the baby. He turned his head up until he remembered that he was blind. "Hello?" he called out in a low voice so as to not wake the sleeping baby up.

Two of the footsteps stopped, while a third slowed down until it stopped right in front of him.

An elder, male voice spoke up. "Hello... who are you?" he asked.

Jan answered without hesitation. He had never had a reason not to give his name. "My name is Jan. What would yours be, sir?"

Jan would have been worried about the pitch of his voice, but he briefly summed it up as being partly to blame for the pain he felt a few minutes ago.

That he even was talking to someone while _blind_ should have been very suspicious to him, but he chalked it up to hallucinations brought on by the pain of being shot in the stomach. It was a bit of a stretch, and Jan knew that, but he wouldn't exclude the option.

The older man was quiet for a time, seemingly debating with himself on whether or not he should give his name to Jan. That was alright, in Jan's honest opinion. People were usually quite wary when it came to him.

But he gave in. "I'm Hiruzen Sarutobi," he said quietly. He added shortly after, "Do you know where you are and what you're doing here?"

Jan locked up, but didn't stop rocking the baby. The physical motion helped keep him calm. Hiruzen? Sarutobi? Thinking back, Jan could remember hearing the names of characters he was familiar with. Minato and Naruto. And if that was true, then the woman had to be Kushina.

That could only mean one thing to Jan.

'_I'm dreaming, aren't I? If so, then this is a good dream. I don't want to wake up just yet._'

Jan answered the elderly man. "If my memory serves me correctly, I am on the outskirts of Konoha. As for why I am here..."

Jan stopped. He didn't know what he should answer. He didn't know _why_ he was here. He didn't know if it was possible to hallucinate from being in too much pain, nor did he know why he was in _this_ place of all places. He would rather be in Konoha slightly before Naruto's graduation as a shinobi of Konoha, or perhaps slightly after.

Jan decided to answer frankly. "I do not know why I'm here, sir."

Jan guessed that Sarutobi frowned. "I see..." he said. "I think you should come with us, young one. We don't know who you really are, and therefore, we need to make sure you're not a harm to Konoha."

Jan nodded, while Sarutobi continued. "I'll have to take the boy from you, though. He needs to be checked over."

For some reason, Jan's heartbeat increased rapidly, and he began sweating. "No," he murmured softly. "Please don't take him away."

There was silence for only a few seconds before the other man answered. "I'm afraid I have to, what with you being interrogated soon."

Jan hugged the sleeping child closer to his chest – said chest being larger than he had initially thought. "But he's just a child. He has just lost his parents, he mustn't be removed from the comfort he is currently in, sir. I mean no offence when I say that, sir."

Another silence, this one stretching for longer than most people would be comfortable with.

Jan wasn't most people. He turned his head down – and he _still_ could only see black – and began moving his torso back and forth, making who Jan assumed to be Naruto go further into sleep.

"I... see. Very well, then. I can see that you don't truly intend to hurt the child, but you will still have to be brought in for questioning."

Jan nodded. "That is okay. I understand why you wish to do that. I am an unknown, and with the village having recently been under attack, it is bound to be on high alert. With a stranger such as I simply barging in unannounced, I would be surprised if you weren't cautious."

Jan didn't know, but he had made Sarutobi a bit uncomfortable with his monotone, dull, yet strangely beautiful voice that had given a far too verbose speech. "Very well."

Sarutobi called in someone who both covered him with a large cloak – only now did Jan notice he was naked. But he didn't mind too much. He wasn't cold, and he hadn't had much to hide to begin with – gingerly picked Jan up, one hand on his back and the other under his knees.

'_Bridal style,_' Jan identified. '_Something I do not entirely understand is called that way. Why 'bridal style' and not 'under-knee style'? Seems to me to make much more sense. I know how my foster brothers would respond, though. They would laugh and shake their heads. __But that would be alright. They would be laughing at the question, and not at me. They __often do that when I ask something stupid._'

Jan didn't know, but the shinobi carrying him was none other than Orochimaru himself. Orochimaru didn't know what to make of the person he was carrying. The child was obviously the Jinchuuriki of the Nine Tailed Beast, that much he could see for himself. But the other person? This... woman? She had a very similar feel to the Nine Tails' chakra, but hers was much less hateful, to the point where it was as if there was no emotion in the chakra at all. He could sense _some_ emotion, though, one being care, particularly aimed at the Jinchuuriki in her lap. How emotion was tied to a human's chakra, however, he didn't know.

He would have to run tests to discover how that was possible.

With nothing else to do but to bring the girl to the Torture And Interrogation department, he indulged himself in a bit of visual curiosity.

Her dark reddish-orange hair would call for attention just about anywhere. The hair was also extremely long, reaching all the way to her ankles. Orochimaru made a mental note to ask the lady if she wanted it to be cut.

She appeared to be sixteen years of age, which was surprising, given her quite curvaceous body. '_Less than Tsunade, though,_' Orochimaru thought bluntly, though he wasn't even faintly aroused by the prospect of having her this close to him.

Her face was also very feminine, even with her eyes...

Her eyes would be creepy to most, even some Jounin. They _literally _glowed purple, and the pupils were vertically slitted. Thing was, the girl's pupils were white and unfocused, as if she was blind. In fact, he was quite sure she was blind, because she didn't even flinch at the destruction around them, nor the carcasses around them – though he had a feeling that she wouldn't, even if she had seen them.

However, Orochimaru wasn't most people. Quite the contrary. He found the girl's eyes alluring to a certain degree.

He landed on the roof of a somewhat ruined building that was nearby the Torture And Interrogation department's main building.

Orochimaru was one of the few who knew that the TI department didn't have just _one_ building that wasn't a member of said department. If the TI department only had one, it would have been much easier for enemy shinobi to infiltrate and steal information.

And with the current predicament the village was in, security had to be very tight, lest enemy factions would exploit their time of weakness.

A nondescript shinobi of the TI saw Orochimaru and approached him a bit hesitantly.

Orochimaru had a bad reputation, what with his creepy nature.

"Is there something you need, Orochimaru-sama?" he asked, nervousness pervading his voice. He might be a temporary TI member, but Orochimaru was of very high rank, thus made the shinobi anxious to get away.

Orochimaru nodded. "Yes," he began. He idly noted that the girl in his arms stiffened – very, _very_ slightly – before he continued. "This girl needs to be interrogated about her presence in the surroundings of Konoha after the recent attack. Her being here warrants suspicion. On the orders of the Third, she is to keep the child and to not be tortured for the information."

The lightly shaking shinobi nodded, and carefully picked the girl out of Orochimaru's hands.

The shinobi noticed that the well-endowed girl was not wearing anything underneath the cloak, but he forced himself to not act upon that.

He carefully carried the quiet – '_Almost too quiet..._' – girl into the building, passing rooms that held few prisoners of previous conflicts or held important information.

He opened a door far into a branching corridor. The room inside was a dull grey, but was well lit, but the only furniture consisting of three comfortable looking chairs and a square wooden table.

The man carefully put the girl down onto the chair that was on the far side of the table, absent-mindedly covering her form further. He went out of the room to retrieve a blanket for the baby, returning with said, comfy blanket.

He handed it to the girl, and she wrapped the child in it with quick, practised motions, as if she had done it a million times before.

He exited the premises in search for two very special interrogators. One was the leader of the TI department. The other was one of the best in the business. He himself was only there because there was a temporary lack of staff.

Inoichi Yamanaka and Ibiki Morino.

Normally they wouldn't be bothered interrogating someone that had no shinobi skills to speak of – while he might have been a nondescript shinobi, he was still perceptive, and could see that she was harmless – but from what Orochimaru had said, she was of high priority due to her sudden and mysterious presence after such a recent and devastating attack.

The Third himself had ordered her to be interrogated. That in and of itself more than warranted the two top interrogators' inclusion.

After a few minutes of searching, Inoichi and Ibiki entered the room that held the sixteen year old, cradling the young Jinchuuriki.

Inoichi silently ordered Ibiki to stand back for the moment while he sat down on one of the chairs.

"So," Inoichi began. "What is your name again?"

"My name is Jan, sir."

Inoichi and Ibiki frowned at her detached voice. "Jan, you say? Very well then, Jan. Why are you here?"

Jan raised his head, but quickly remembered that he was blind, and so just let his head stay. "I am here because I am being interrogated."

Inoichi shook his head. "No, why are you in Konoha? Why have you been in the outskirts of Konoha?"

"I don't know."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow. "You don't know? Care to elaborate on that?"

"I don't know," Jan repeated.

Both members of the TI frowned. "You're avoiding the question, Jan," Inoichi stated. "Why were you oh so conveniently beside the bodies of the recently deceased Fourth Hokage and his late wife, comforting their only child, the child you still have in your arms?"

"I don't know," Jan said, yet again. Before Inoichi or Ibiki could respond, Jan continued. "I don't know how to further explain my situation, other than that I am dreaming, and that you are all figments of my imagination."

Inoichi sighed. He unfortunately had experience with people such as this girl. They always thought they were dreaming. Usually they were crazy and had killed many. But this girl... his experience and intricate knowledge of the human psyche and tics of said humans was telling him that the girl was not _entirely_ lying. She genuinely thought she was dreaming.

Thing was, she wasn't dreaming. "Well then," he said. "I think you're in for a surprise. You're not dreaming. You're here. This is real."

Jan blinked, but quickly shook his head. "I am sorry, sir, but you are wrong. I am dreaming. This world is that of fiction, and you are merely auditory hallucinations."

Inoichi shook his head as well. "Nevertheless, I have to see why you were there. I hope you don't mind me looking through your mind, because I _will_ discover the reason you were there."

Inoichi stood up, and made a mental note of the fact that Jan didn't move away or made any motion against his approach. "You will feel a slight prick on your forehead. Be prepared."

He put his hand on Jan's forehead and let his chakra do the work.

* * *

Emptiness.

That was all Inoichi could see. There was nothing. Literally nothing. Just a vast expanse of _nothing_.

No, not quite nothing.

Inoichi could hear the faint sound of sobbing. He looked around, but he couldn't find the source of the crying. It was as if it came from everywhere. He couldn't even identify what the crying person was. Was it a man or a woman? A teenager or an elderly?

Inoichi wasn't quite sure what to do. He was usually met with some kind of landscape, or a house, or somewhere where they would usually find themselves comfortable. On the very rare occasions, it would only be a single room that he would see, but it had never been _nothing_.

It was one of the most novel of experiences he had gone through.

He could not entirely describe his surroundings. He didn't know what he was standing on, but when he looked closer, he could see words of comfort lining his feet, providing him ground to stand on.

'_I love you._'

'_You are loved._'

'_No one hates you._'

'_Everyone loves you._'

'_You are one of a kind._'

'_You are my most precious person_.'

'_There is no one in this vast world that wants you to suffer_.'

Inoichi was, frankly, disturbed. The letters were of a foreign language, yet he could understand them, because they came with emotions, emotions with such an intensity that he couldn't understand how he was still inside the woman's mind without hemorrhaging.

He was reminded of how disturbed he was from the lack of surroundings. Given the emotions that followed the kind words, he knew that the girl had emotions, and yet, apparently she had never felt comfortable anywhere.

And who was sobbing?

Shaking his head, he proceeded to commence his original task. To discover why this 'Jan' – '_If that is even her real name._' – was there where the Third found her.

He called upon his chakra, willing it to make it show him her memories.

Nothing came up.

'_How typical. A seal that blocks memories._'

Inoichi recalled his knowledge of mind seals, and focused his chakra to call forth any kind mind seals.

Again, nothing showed.

He frowned deeply. '_What's going on? No mind seal can hide itself from a trained Yamanaka. This __girl has no memories..._'

Deciding that he should at least achieve something, he used his chakra to summon images from his own memories, images intent on invoking emotions. No personal images, of course.

Barbecued food. Nothing.

Vegetables. Nothing.

One of those expensive and fancy television sets. Nothing.

The Hokage Monument. Nothing.

The symbol of Konoha. Nothing.

He continued, sending many images of mundane things, yet always receiving nothing.

Inoichi sighed, but as a last ditch attempt, came with an image of the child that Jan was holding.

Motherly care.

He smirked. '_Now we're getting somewhere..._'

He got an image – a terrifyingly fresh one – of the Nine Tailed Beast. Distress and sadness.

He came with an image of the Fourth Hokage. Bitter happiness.

Hyuuga clan symbol. Confused frustration, with a large but separate part being encouraging for _something_.

Uchiha clan symbol. Mocking amusement and annoyance.

Inoichi had enough, but he wanted to know one more thing before he went out.

He felt around for her chakra, and when he received a single strand of it, he was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount.

He stumbled before cutting the connection with her chakra.

If he had to liken the quantity to anything, it would be the Nine Tailed Beast's chakra. But the Nine Tails' chakra was hateful. This girl's chakra was, for lack of a better term, disconnected.

He had enough information to make a reasonable deduction.

* * *

Inoichi took a deep breath and stepped back. "I see that you at least don't intend to harm anyone here. That's always a plus."

The blind girl blinked. "I never intended to harm anyone."

Inoichi nodded. "I know. I'll report to the Third, let him make a decision for your future. Come, Ibiki."

Jan heard two sets of feet walk and a door being opened and closed, which was followed by the soft mewling of the child in his arms.

Immediately being filled with worry, he started rocking him again, humming a tune he faintly recalled.

The child groaned and moaned, grabbing onto Jan's straight hair. He let out a slight gasp of discomfort, but he let Naruto do whatever he wished.

Jan idly noted that he had straight hair where he should have had very curly hair. And that he had very long hair. He didn't know why, but he didn't mind terribly. Naruto had something to grab and play with, after all.

Suddenly, instinct took over Jan, and he loosened the cloak on his body so that a part of his chest was exposed. He didn't think why he was doing what he was doing, he simply brought Naruto's head to his chest, and let him suckle.

And Naruto drank with vigour, Jan not stopping to wonder why he was feeling Naruto breastfeeding on him when Jan shouldn't even be able to breastfeed to begin with.

Jan just _did_.

It took a few minutes for Naruto to be properly breastfed, but when he was finished, Jan put the cloak back on carefully so as to not disturb the sleeping Naruto.

It was shortly after that when a shinobi entered and gently picked Jan up.

* * *

After several rushes of air, Jan was placed down onto his own two feet. He felt that they were a bit smaller than he was used to, though he did not stumble.

He heard doors being opened in front of him, and dulled conversation stopping at Jan's entry.

He was led by hand on his shoulder to a chair, softly pushed down to sit on it.

"This is she," Jan heard Hiruzen say. "The child she is carrying is the Jinchuuriki of the Nine Tailed Beast."

Jan heard murmuring come from around him. '_I am in between two rows._'

"So is that..." a nervous voice gulped from Jan's left. "Is that the holder of the Nine Tails?"

A pause before the same, male voice continued. "But... then the beast is still alive! How will we be able to get rid of it when it is inside a child? Is there some way we can get rid of it?"

One more pause, and a groan of despair from the same man.

Another male voice spoke up from his left, this one wary. "Are you sure that the seal will be able to hold the beast back? Shouldn't you call for Jiraiya-sama to look the seal over?"

The Third responded. "Jiraiya has been called already, but he is doubtlessly busy with handling damage reports, and will be here once he is finished with them. The seal holding it in is at least capable of maintaining itself for an additional three hours, more than enough time for my student to come in and check if it functions as intended."

A fourth voice spoke. "Who is this girl, and why is she holding the Jinchuuriki? I have never seen that kind of eyes before, nor have I seen that shade or length of hair."

Silence ensued across the entire room, giving enough time for Jan to mull some new information over.

'She_? I am not a woman. But it is possible that in this dream I have become one. Naruto meeting my chest too early, the size of my feet, and Naruto..._'

Jan's head perked up by his latest thought. '_And Naruto being breastfed._'

He shook his head, clearing his mind. '_If I am a woman, I might as well refer to myself as one. No use being distraught over a sex change inside a dream_.'

"Her name is Jan," the Third answered after the silence. "And she appeared shortly after the death of the Fourth. I'm afraid that is all the information we have about her. I have been informed by Inoichi Yamanaka himself that she is of no threat to the village whatsoever. She intends no harm upon anyone."

A short sigh escaped a woman's lips. "So what will we do with her? She is obviously attached to the child. What is the Jinchuuriki's name, anyway?"

"The Jinchuuriki's name is Naruto Uzumaki," Sarutobi answered after a brief moment. "Jan will take care of Naruto. She might not be well known, but taking her in should not be of much consequence. Her presence also seems to have a soothing effect on little Naruto there."

The doors behind Jan burst open, followed by shouts. "Sensei, where is he? Where is Naruto?"

A short pause and hasty footsteps that obviously belonged to Jiraiya approached Jan. Jan felt Naruto be taken from her grasp, but with great restraint, she let him be taken away from her. Naruto would be returned to her. Jiraiya was not going to keep him forever.

Naruto began to sniffle, inciting a deep sense of fear in Jan. Her breathing hastened, her hands shaking, but she remained sitting.

But when Naruto began to cry, Jan's arms shot out and grabbed hold of him, practically ripping him out of Jiraiya's grasp, wrapping him in the blanket provided and began to calm him, humming the same tune as before. Naruto quickly calmed down, his cries lessening into small weeping sounds that tore on heartstrings that she didn't even know existed until now.

The only sound that was heard in the large room was Naruto's sniffling and Jan's cooing. The rest of the people in the meeting room were staring at the teenager that should be too young to be a mother.

Jiraiya looked on, and was honestly shocked that a girl her age had not been more respectful when it came to him. He wasn't going to be angry or anything – frankly, he thought that there was too much respect for him – it was just that he had come to expect it.

But he shook his head and reported the status of the seal on Naruto's stomach. "The seal's fine. It'll hold for at the very least three more decades."

Jan didn't listen as the councillors talked back and forth about the future of the Jinchuuriki and the girl handling him.

She was solely focused on Naruto's well being, which was even more difficult, given her strange case of blindness. She was rocking him slowly, back and forth, like the baby he was, humming a low, comforting hymn.

"-listening? Jan!"

Jan heard Sarutobi call for her attention, and tilted her head up, indicating her attention.

She heard a sigh before the Third spoke up again. "Did you hear what we said about your situation?"

Jan shook her head. She heard slight grumbling of annoyance come from the people around her. '_I wonder why they are groaning._'

"We have decided to grant you residence in this village, and we assign you extra help for little Naruto, so that he can grow up healthy. Is that alright?" the Third offered, silently hoping that the seemingly emotionless girl would accept. Naruto was not only the Jinchuuriki – and would therefore be discriminated, possibly alienated – but Naruto was also an orphan with no family to speak of.

It didn't take Jan long to answer.

"Yes."

Hours later, Jan found herself in a room with a wall-to-wall carpet. It felt pleasant to the touch. She was sitting on what she could guess was a chair with pillows.

She was alone in the room together with the newly born Naruto.

And she was being observed.

She didn't know that, so she was simply breastfeeding the boy. He suckled and drank until his heart's content, and when he was done, he simply let go and squirmed until he was satisfied with his position. Tying the new robe – a robe someone had given her, along with a new blanket for the infant, somewhere along in between the end of the council meeting and getting into the room – together, Jan wrapped Naruto up in the blanket.

Jan wasn't determined to do anything.

She wasn't going to live life like most people claimed to want to do.

She was going to live life like she always had.

One day at a time.

One hour at a time.

One minute at a time.

Just like how her mother had told her to.

* * *

Behind a mirror Jan couldn't see were five people. Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.

"I am still suspicious about this youngster, Hiruzen. Her appearance, it's too convenient. She looks like an Uzumaki, which just makes it worse."

"I know, Homura. I am keeping her in Konoha for that same reason. Her presence is far too well timed. Right after the death of our Fourth and his wife."

Hiruzen directed his eyes at his former teammates and his rival. "However, I do know that she does not truly want to hurt anyone. At least not yet. Inoichi has reported that she either has an extremely advanced mind shield seal matrix – which is highly unlikely, because otherwise we'd see evidence of such before – or has no recollection of anything. To her, we're 'auditory hallucinations'."

Danzo frowned. "What about her chakra?"

The newly reinstated Third Hokage glanced at Danzo before looking at Jan through the one-way mirror. "Inoichi said that it's basically the Nine Tails' chakra, when it comes to amount."

The three elders' eyes widened. "What?" Koharu exclaimed, albeit not loudly. "Are you saying that it is possible that she is the Nine Tailed Beast? That Naruto Uzumaki isn't the Jinchuuriki?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "I'm saying that it's possible. I don't know how or why. I assume that the Nine Tailed Beast's chakra has somehow been split. Half is sealed inside Naruto, and the other half is in Jan's possession, or _is_ Jan. That, or Naruto isn't the Jinchuuriki at all."

Danzo saw a small hole in that logic. "If Naruto isn't the Jinchuuriki, wouldn't Jiraiya notice the lack of such demonic chakra?"

The Hokage hummed. "I did indeed miss that. The seal on Naruto's stomach has at least some of the Nine Tails' chakra if Jiraiya didn't bring it to attention. But in any case, the Nine Tails will not bother us again, if what I believe is correct."

Koharu huffed. "And what do you believe, Hiruzen?"

Sarutobi didn't answer for about a dozen seconds. "I believe that Jan will benefit us in the future. But that like any advantage, there's unexpected happenings. The positives of having her here outweighs the negatives. She's a gift that comes with consequences."

* * *

Jan lived in an apartment.

It was a nice apartment, Jan decided. There were people there to help her acclimatize into the new environment, and help her change Naruto's diapers.

She had gotten used to her blindness. Jan still didn't want it, but she decided that there wasn't anything that she could do to get her sight back.

However, fortunately for her, ever so slowly, after weeks upon weeks, Jan slowly got her sight back.

At first, it was merely blurs of colours, splotches of red, brown, yellow, beige, and blue, with a few greens thrown in for good measure.

That lasted for several weeks before slowly clearing up so that she could see shapes. Blurry shapes, but still shapes.

And all along, people – usually older women, sometimes the Third Hokage – helped her take care of Naruto. Naruto was quite energetic, Jan would often note. He was usually squirming and screaming if Jan wasn't close or in line of sight. The nannies, as they called themselves, were often grumpy. It made Jan wonder what was wrong with their daily lives. She had often asked if there was something she could help them with, but they always snapped back at her. So Jan learned to not ask what was wrong with the older nannies.

Sarutobi, however, was always enjoying taking care of Naruto, even when Naruto was screaming bloody murder when Jan couldn't be there.

After a couple of months, Jan could see Naruto perfectly.

It was... indescribable. Jan could see the baby boy she had been taking care of for months – Jan never kept track of time, because whenever she did, she'd get distracted and would lose it – and he was cute, downright adorable.

Jan couldn't help but smile.

In fact, such was the joy that her chest felt as if it had exploded in sheer happiness.

It made Jan frown. '_Why does if feel like this? I have never experienced this before. What is this feeling?_'

Indeed, Jan didn't know what the feeling was. She couldn't connect the happiness with the explosive feeling in her chest.

She had a gift with consequences. One of those consequences was that she had problems making connection.

Connections of any kind.

Jan mentally shook her head as she rocked Naruto. '_Whatever that feeling was, I will be here._'

Her sight wasn't fully recovered. It was blurry after a certain but still close distance, but it was becoming better the more time went on.

Months went on, and when Jan finally had her full eyesight, she was to walk outside her apartment and into the open sunlight.

The fresh air invaded her nostrils, cleaning all on the way through her lungs and to her diaphragm. She expelled some more stale air out of her, only to inhale more fresh air.

Naruto giggled and grabbed a fistful of Jan's very long hair. Jan's reddish-orange hair was tied into a tight bun, but there was too much hair, and so there was a long strand of hair coming out of the bun. It was currently going over her shoulder and was being played with by Naruto.

Because of the length, Naruto had a lot of hair to play with, and Jan didn't have to worry too much about it being pulled. She wasn't bothered to begin with anyway, but it was nice to know.

Jan could see the people running to and fro, and not a few people stopped for a moment to stare at Jan.

Jan didn't know why, but she assumed it was her hair. She didn't know that it was three things that stole people's attention; namely her hair, her voluptuous body, and the cute baby playing with her hair.

None of them cared that she had next to no expression on her face.

Because there were other things that demanded their attention, other things they deemed more important than the continuously repressed emotions of a sixteen year old adoptive mother.

'_I do not believe my hair to be that interesting._'

And Jan believed too much in humanity to notice a few of the lustful eyes of a couple of men.

'_Nevertheless, I believe a tour of Konoha is in order. I can find my way back. I know the address._'

And so, she began walking in a random direction, a blanketed Naruto in her arms.

And an unrestrained man stalking her.

* * *

**Author's note:**Okay, it is official. I don't have interest in Tales of a Dimension Travelling Gutsy Ninja. I don't have any at all. I have the plans set, and all that jazz, but I just don't have the necessary motivation to write on.

If any of you are willing to take up the mantle, be sure to PM me and I can send you the folder I have with all the shit that's necessary.

As for Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, it'll be finished much later than I would like, what with the weekly releases of Naruto chapters.

I believe some explanation is required for you all to understand why Jan is in the Naruto universe, and why he's female. I won't be able to explain why through the story. I can't think of a scenario where that can happen.

Remember when Minato sealed the Yin half of Kurama's chakra inside him? It resulted in there only being the Yang part of it left. And if what I understand is correct, Yin is "the power of the mind", and Yang is "the power of the body", as in, Yin is spiritual power, and Yang is physical power. In this story, Yin keeps Yang in check, just like Yang keeps Yin in check. As a result of Yin being removed, the incredible collection of physical energy caused a space-time anomaly to occur, and it pulled Jan out of the dimension Earth is in. If Jan was just a couple of metres away from where he was killed, or if he was just killed a little sooner or a little later, or if he hadn't been killed at all, he wouldn't have been pulled.

The sex change is because Kurama is, in essence, sexless. He has no gender that he identifies himself as. But since he has been sealed inside Mito, he has subconsciously started to adapt to the female gender. That was furthered when he was sealed inside Kushina. Kushina became pregnant, so Kurama was exposed to the hormones generated with being pregnant. Obviously he could shrug them off, but he couldn't deny its existence.

So when Jan came into the picture, Kurama's chakra and his "empathy" for women made Jan into a woman himself, and because of the hormones, Jan basically became Naruto's mother without having to go through the nine months of pregnancy, or having birthed him.

I think you can guess your way to why Jan's hair is that colour or length, and why her pupils are slitted.


End file.
